“The pithy, punchy line ‘Portugal is the California of Europe’ resonates for a lot of West Coasters,” writes Becca Williams in The Portugal News. “The two bask in look-alike sweeping coastlines (Cali with 840 miles, Portugal with 1,114), undulating hills, mountains, valleys, deserts, and forests. Both share a rich biodiversity up and down the coast of plants and animals in varying climates and landscapes with wine regions flourishing in each.”
Portugal’s sunny Algarve coast is often branded the “California of Europe.” Although Portugal experiences more hours of sunshine per year than California, and its winter is less harsh, their weather is relatively similar.
While some compare California to the Algarve, others look to Lisbon, the capital city, when seeking to put down roots in “Portugal’s California.”
Then, too, there are undeniable similarities between San Francisco and Lisbon, from iconic bridges to quaint trams and hilly landscapes. Comparisons between the two cities run deeper than that, with some people wondering whether they are twin cities. And then it hits you: Lisbon is a sister city to San Francisco. The older sister city. Identical in nature. Steep, narrow, winding residential streets. Well adorned buildings, and great, big bridges.
“It seems like an odd choice, doesn’t it?” Madonna quipped after moving from London to Lisbon in 2017. But lately, Portugal has become a vital destination for Californians in search of reinvention and rejuvenation, says Jonathan Littman in his LA Magazine story about Portugal. “A nation that once split the globe with Spain, then lost relevance for centuries, is the new chic spot to grow a startup, forge an international team, buy an apartment, or truly live. The cost of living is less than half that of California, dinner for two runs about $25, good vinho de supermercado is cheaper than our state’s bottled water, and the work-force malaise and politicization of the pandemic that gripped the Golden State and the nation are refreshingly absent.”
“Lisbon pulses with a vibrant expat community,” he continues: “Brazilians, French, Ukrainians, Brits, Africans, Italians, and, increasingly, Californians. Scarlett Johansson bought a flat in the city’s tony Principe Real neighborhood; fellow superhero Michael Fassbender scored a $2 million apartment overlooking the Tagus River. John Malkovich was so smitten he delivered a video mash note: ‘a feast for the eyes … the architecture and the variety of it, the colors, the landscape … great culture, great people, great food.’
“Portugal’s newly arrived celebrities are symbols of a larger diaspora in the making,” Littman concludes. “U.S. emigration to Lisbon and Porto leapt 33 percent in the year before the pandemic. And that quintessential California experience, the tech confab, is back … in Lisbon with the massive Web Summit conference, its in-person status a product of a nation that now boasts an 89 percent vaccination rate, the world’s highest. Once Europe’s budget-vacation destination, Portugal is now Europe’s top tourist spot several years running.”
While not to begrudge Littman and others of their fondness for Lisbon and Portugal’s coastal cities, the adulation doesn’t begin or end there.
Take Portugal’s central cities: Do any deserve the recognition and regard of the Midwestern USA’s? Different though they may be, are there places in Portugal like Chicago, Madison, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor, Omaha, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Rochester, Des Moines, and Kansas City?
Yes, indeed there are!
Coimbra, Peniche, Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Monsanto, Óbidos, Ovar, Espinho, Vila de Rei, Leiria, Caldas da Rainha, Viseu, Almeida, Tomar, Fátima, and Évora immediately come to mind.
You’d be forgiven for associating Portugal with and tourist resorts. Yet for many expats, the Portugal they know and love is a world away from these sun, sea, sand, golf course stereotypes. The peaceful mountainous landscapes of central Portugal are a world away from the bright lights and relentless energy found in Lisbon and Porto.
“Much of the region is the very definition of unspoiled, both in terms of landscape and lifestyle,” writes Ben Taylor in Portugal Property Guides. “The ancient villages dotted throughout the undulating verdant surroundings make it appear as if time has stood still.”
Rural getaways in the countryside between the city of Coimbra and the Serra de Estrela Natural Park are particularly popular. In this region, new arrivals tend to learn Portuguese out of necessity. This enables them to integrate more quickly than in places like the Algarve, where English is widely spoken. Although plenty of expats are scattered around the area, it’s more likely that your neighbors will be Portuguese–which is exactly what most people who choose to move to this kind of area prefer.
Even east coast Portugal has its worlds of wonder. Among them: Elvas, Belmonte, Chaves, Monsaraz, Almeida, Marvão, Vila Viçosa, Vila Nova de Cerveira, Montalegre, Figuera de Castelo Rodrigo, and, of the Alentejo region bounded on the east by the Spanish frontier. While these may not have the same name recognition as such east coast USA cities as Atlanta, Atlantic City, Boston, Charleston, Charlotte, Hartford, Miami, New York, Portland, Philadelphia, Providence, Richmond, and Washington, DC, what they may lack in nomenclature is offset by history and charm.
The lyrics of California Dreamin by the Mamas and Papas have absolutely nothing in common with the realities of Portugal: All the leaves are brown. And the sky is gray. I’d be safe and warm If I was in L.A. If I didn’t tell her, I could leave today. California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.
Nonetheless, the California Dream is a concept with which we all are familiar: dreaming about being free and away from hardships, a popular phrase used in the 1960s during the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights movement.
Seeking to strengthen connections between Portugal and California through surfing and conservation — with initiatives linked to sustainability and the blue economy — the Portuguese consulate in San Francisco hosted a conference organized by the consulate and TMA Blue Tech, bringing together an audience of surfers and academics from the University of California San Diego (UCSD).
“As I often say, California is Portugal on steroids,” said Pedro Pinto, in an interview with Lusa/The Portugal News on the sidelines of the ‘Surf Industry Sustainability Initiatives’ conference held in San Diego (USA).
“It’s four times bigger, [it has] four times more population, but there are many similarities and a natural empathy,” he mused. “This is something that we work on—to promote synergies … mutually beneficial at a political and economic level, a macro level, but it is also important to do this at a local level.”
With the similarities, he said, also come common challenges. “One of them is coastal protection, another is the use of offshore renewable energy. It’s something we see more and more with relevance, this connection between Portugal and California, and [we] also want to promote this through surfing.”
(The San Diego event kicked off the Global Wave Conference between Peniche, Nazaré, and Ericeira from October 2nd to 4th, 2023.)
Yes, there are similarities between California and Portugal. But regardless of where you’re from, you can find cities, towns, and villages in Iberia that remind you of physical aspects of America once that “if only …” qualifier is factored in.
We should look to Portugal for what it is, not what it isn’t: California or a replica of anywhere else!
Bruce H. Joffe is publisher and creative director of Portugal Living Magazine.
"Exactly!" 